Press Release

Nation’s Chief Mediator Announces Return to Private Sector

The nation’s top labor-management mediator has notified the White House of his intention to resign as Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) and return to the private sector. John Calhoun Wells told the President in a letter that his charge to "take an organization with a distinguished history of service to our nation’s collective bargaining and labor-management communities, and prepare it for an even more crucial role in America’s 21st Century economy, is largely complete."

Dr. Wells referred to the strategic redirection of FMCS which he said, "has been driven by a vision of a customer-focused, performance-based organization, with 360-degree mediators providing a full range of labor-management mediation and conflict resolution services at least the equal of the best in the private sector. The redirection has required a quantum change within FMCS, including more flexible hiring criteria and more rigorous mediator selection; restructured field operations and a redefinition of field and National Office leadership roles and responsibilities; recruiting and promoting a higher-qualified, more diverse workforce; major investments in employee education and training, in technology modernization and major workplace redesign. We have learned to "listen to the marketplace," through the agency’s first National Customer Survey, customer focus groups and an emphasis on customer outreach by field mediators and managers."

The Strategic Redirection of FMCS was recognized last fall by Vice President Gore and the National Performance Review with the Hammer Award, given to agencies for outstanding efforts in building a government "that works better and costs less."

Wells said, "The most important thing I have done is use my position as a forum to articulate an enlightened construct in collective bargaining in which the labor-management relationship, itself, is recognized and promoted as a means for improved economic performance and competitive advantage, leading to the inter-related goals of profits and jobs. This is a partnership for the future."

Wells was appointed by President Clinton in November 1993. He has led mediation teams in the settlement of some of the largest, most difficult labor disputes in modern history, including United Parcel Service and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1997), McDonnell Douglas Aircraft and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) (1996), The Trucking Industry and the Teamsters (1994), Boeing Aircraft and the Machinists (1995), and Caterpillar Inc. and the United Auto Workers (UAW) (1993- ).

Wells said the long dispute between Caterpillar and the UAW has given him both his greatest moments of satisfaction and frustration. "I was proud of the role FMCS was able to play in reaching a tentative agreement on February 13," Wells said. "When that tentative agreement was not ratified by UAW local union members, I was very disappointed. But yesterday, in a conference telephone call with the Caterpillar and UAW chief negotiators, the company offered a modified contract proposal to the union, and I am once again hopeful that a final settlement might not be too far away."

Wells also pointed to FMCS’ role in helping some of the country’s largest corporations begin to move workplace relationships with their employee unions from adversarial to partnership.

"These Preventive Mediation services have grown from 10 percent of the agency’s mediation caseload to nearly one-third during the last four years," he said. "This is a very positive and hopeful course for American business, workers and unions to take. Through our training in cooperative processes, we are able to help them transform their relationship, yielding a more productive and profitable enterprise, and therefore, one that is better able to provide jobs and employment security."

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Last modified: April 16, 1998